Don’t set your mind on things you don’t possess as if they were yours, but count the blessings you actually possess and think how much you would desire them if they weren’t already yours. But watch yourself, that you don’t value these things to the point of being troubled if you should lose them.
—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 7.27
We regularly covet what other people have. We desperately try to keep up with the Joneses, all the while the Joneses are miserable trying to keep up with us.
It would be funny if it weren’t so sad. So today, stop trying to get what other people have. Fight your urge to gather and hoard. That’s not the right way to live and act. Appreciate and take advantage of what you already do have, and let that attitude guide your actions.
* Source: The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman